


Nothing Without Love

by Trixie_Baggins



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 12:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3650325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trixie_Baggins/pseuds/Trixie_Baggins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title comes from Nate Ruess' song 'Nothing Without Love'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Without Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jennae Rianna](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Jennae+Rianna), [ParadoxinMotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxinMotion/gifts).



> Okay, so just an FYI:  
> For this fic I messed with plotlines, timelines, family lines, and even the actual lines that I used from the movie(s). Legolas' mother doesn't have a name (in all of the research I did) so I gave her one. Pretty sure that Legolas is actually fully elf, but for the sake this story, I messed with that.
> 
> Okay? Okay.
> 
> Cassiterite is a brown gem. Image can be found here:  
> http://www.djraregems.com/gems2014/03/_notes/18396-Cassiterite.jpg

'No, Thranduil. I absolutely forbid it.'

'Why?'

'Thranduil, I do not want you to entertain these notions that you can go wherever you want, do whatever you want, and be with whomever you want. You are my son, a Prince of Mirkwood, heir to the throne. You have duties to tend to and a reputation to uphold.'

'I love her.'

'Thranduil, one day you will sit on this throne and you will need an heir. Do you really want him to be a half-breed? That is a disgrace to the throne of Mirkwood, and all we hold dear.'

'Lord Elrond is half-human and he is the leader of the Rivendell elves.'

'Lord Elrond is a fool and a fraud.'

'But father-'

'No, Thranduil. That is my final decision.'

 

The young, blond prince left the throne room crest-fallen. He was sure that his father would have understood because he once told him to marry for love and love only when he was younger. Over the years, though, Oropher had gotten haughty and looked down on non-elves and even those of a lesser status.

You can imagine his sentiments when Thranduil announced his love for and his desire to marry a young Gondorian –the cousin of Isildur, a Gondorian that would gain fame later- that he had met during one of his many travels. She had blonde hair and the prettiest eyes ever. They were brown and sparkled like cassiterite.

War broke out in Middle Earth and the Mirkwood elves did their part. They stood with the Dwarves, Men and other Elves to defeat their common enemy. Eventually Sauron was defeated, but at a great price. Many lives, were lost, including Thranduil's own father. The young prince was now King of one of the only three elven realms remaining on Middle Earth.

* * *

He wed her, the girl of his dreams and brought her to live with him in his kingdom. She loved him and he loved her, but she was always so lonely. Mirkwood elves in general were a very proud race and they despised her for daring to compare herself with them; for daring to think she was worthy enough to look at their King, let alone marry him. With time, however, Adrina bore to her husband a son and he was named Legolas.

Thranduil did everything in his power to make his bride be accepted by his people, including giving her one of the heirlooms of his people- the White Gems of Lasgalen. She wore them with dignity and grace, and whenever she did, she outshone the jewels themselves. This latest act brought even more ridicule upon her, and eventually she fled with nothing but the clothes on her back and the jewels around her neck.  
Adrina found herself in the realm of Erebor, during the reign of Thror, King Under the Mountain. Dwarves had no quarrel with men, and she was accepted in his home as a guest and as a friend. It was there she stayed before Smaug came from the North and drove them from their home. The Gems that Thranduil had so lovingly bestowed upon her were forgotten, left behind in the chaos, never to be seen again.

* * *

The Dwarf company and she moved from place to place wherever they could pitch their tents and live for a while. Ever and always was Thranduil searching for his one true love, trying to find her and bring her home. When word came of a woman traveling with the citizens of Dale that did not look like she belonged among them. With fair hair and brown eyes as brilliant as the stars, Thranduil set off, knowing that it was her.

A quarrel broke out among the Dwarves, some desiring to go back to the realms of Men where work could be had, money earned and food bought. Others wanted to reclaim Moria and still others wanted to stay where they are. The one group was divided into three, and Adrina stayed up North.

Thranduil and his small band of scouts were approaching the Dwarven settlement when Fire Serpents of the North laid siege to it. The Dwarves, aided by the Elves, put up a grand fight, but they were overwhelmed. Thranduil and his second-in-command alone, survived. His wife died in his arms.

* * *

Ever since that day, the King of Mirkwood has held a strong hatred for Dwarves, and their stupidity. Ever since that day, the King of Mirkwood has born a scar, both outwardly and inwardly.  
It was hard for Thranduil to live through the next few months. Elves can die of a broken heart, and more than once he was on the verge of death, when he remembered Legolas. His son. Her son. Although at first glance the Prince of Mirkwood was the spitting image of his father. But if one looked beyond the blond hair and elvish grace they would see eyes, brown like cassiterite. In him, a little piece of his mother lived, and everytime Thranduil watched him, he would have just a little bit more strength to carry on.

Ever since that fateful day, Thranduil had sworn to never care for another, not even his own son. He just couldn't bear the thought of losing someone else. Legolas grew up apart from his father, though in the same house. He was raised mainly by maids and tutors who taught him every manner in which to fight. If he needed 'fatherly advice' he would go to one of them and not Thranduil, for the King had made it clear from the beginning that he was his King, not his Father.

* * *

Thranduil knew that one day Legolas would find someone, and perhaps leave. And he knew that when he did that, it would break his heart once more. So he tried to stay as distant as possible. As far as he was concerned, Legolas was a Captain in his army, a talented one, yes, but nothing more.  
And yet, try as he might, Legolas was still his son, his flesh and blood. Legolas still had the same blood running through him, as his mother had had running through her. That is why he called Tauriel to have a discussion with her.

'Legolas has grown fond of you.'

The fact that he told Tauriel not to encourage Legolas' feelings was not because he felt her below his son, but rather that he felt she was not-committed enough. True, Legolas cared for her, and perhaps even she for him, but he had noticed the way her glance would always fall on the youngest of the Dwarf company. The way that they always found a way to talk to each other, even in the presence of other elves. And Thranduil knew that if Legolas fell in love with Tauriel, that love would surely kill him.  


* * *

'There is no love in you.'

'You're wrong,' he wanted to scream. 'I loved and I lost, and I never want to do that again.' But he had not. Instead, he had simply gotten angry. Anger was an emotion that didn't require its possessor to feel, and had often been his go-to response, because Thranduil was to broken to feel.

'If you want to hurt her, you're going to have to kill me.' Enter Legolas. His son. The last living link to her. And he was choosing Tauriel. 

'I will go with you.' After the love of his life died, Thranduil thought that he was so hurt, he could never be hurt again. But that moment proved him wrong. He let Legolas go, because even though he had tried to be his King and not his Father, he still loved him, and wanted him to be happy.

* * *

'I cannot go back.'

'Go North. Find the Dunedain. There is a young Ranger amongst them. You should meet him. His father, Arathorn, was a good man. His son, might grow to be a great one.'

'What is his name?'

'He's known in the wild as Strider. His true name you must discover for yourself.'

Thranduil wanted to say so many things to Legolas, his son, in that moment, but he could not find the words. Instead, he said 'Your mother loved you.' But that was all he said. Because how could he look into those brown eyes that were so quintessentially hers and tell Legolas that he grew up without a mother because she chose to leave, rather than subject her son to the ridicule that she was subjected to? That his mother had died in his arms because had come too late? That his mother was a relative to Isildur, the same Isildur that Aragorn was the heir of?

* * *

'If this is love, I do not want it. Take it from me, please. Why does it hurt so much?'

'Because it was real.'

Thranduil recognized the look on Tauriel's face, because after Legolas' mother died, he saw that face every time he looked in a mirror. And he recognized those words, because every time he was alone in his bed, without another to keep him warm, and it felt like he was being ripped apart, he said those words.

**Author's Note:**

> I have two other alternative endings that I played with for a while, but this is the one I liked the most. If you don't like it, comment with your displeasure, and I'll send you the other two. They're more of ending-endings.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
